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[Guidance Overview]
DOL's Regulations on Fee Disclosures by Plan Service Providers (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "The regulations impose significant new requirements that are likely to change the way in which plan service providers gather and report fee and compensation information. The new requirements are effective on July 16, 2011, and will apply to both new and existing service contracts or arrangements. [Reprinted with permission from Employee Benefit Plan Review, October 2010.]"
(Winston & Strawn LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
Does Your Qualified Retirement Plan Need to Be Amended This Year? (PDF)
6 pages. Excerpt: "This advisory is to remind plan sponsors of deadlines for amending qualified retirement plans. Some amendments must be completed by December 31, 2010 (for calendar year plans). Others must be completed by January 31, 2011 (for Cycle E plans). Still others must be completed by the deadline for filing the plan sponsor's 2010 tax return ('interim' amendments). This advisory identifies those plans that must be amended now or in the near future."
(Alston & Bird LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
Is It Time to Add a Roth Feature to Your 401(k) Plan?
Excerpt: "[C]ompanies that believe participants will be interested in the in-plan conversion option may wish to amend their plans to allow Roth 401(k) contributions with the future enhancement of in-plan Roth conversions once the needed guidance is issued."
(Poyner Spruill LLP)

The World's 500 Largest Asset Managers: Year End 2009
Excerpt: "Highlights from this year's report include: Assets managed by the world's largest 500 fund managers rose by 16% in 2009 to US$62 tril.lion at the end of the year. This is in contrast to a 23% loss the year before."
(Towers Watson)

Beyond the ABCs of ESOP Restatements and Submissions
Excerpt: "What [companies] may not realize is that the ESOP restatement process offers potentially unrealized opportunities for cost efficiency, employer protection and creative re-design. This is the time for ESOP companies to look beyond the ABCs of basic ESOP restatements and maximize whatever opportunities the law allows."
(Chang, Ruthenberg & Long PC)

A 401(k) Funds Popularity Contest
Excerpt: "A look at which actively managed mutual funds shepherd the most retirement assets, how well they do it, and where they are putting your money."
(Bloomberg Businessweek)

Social Security Rules Penalize California Public Employees
Excerpt: "[There are] two little-understood provisions of Social Security. Formally speaking, these are the government pension offset, enacted in 1977, and the windfall elimination provision, enacted in 1983. They're known as GPO/WEP for short."
(Los Angeles Times)

Will the Various California Pension Measures Sink or Swim?
Excerpt: "The measure would roll back retirement benefits for newly hired safety employees to a formula used before the Bakersfield City Council sweetened pensions in 2001. Current employees would not be affected, only police and firefighters hired starting in January and after."
(The Bakersfield Californian)

Trucking Company Stock-Drop Suit Survives Initial Challenge
Excerpt: "[The District Judge] applied the presumption of prudence typically used in stock-drop cases (where fiduciaries in plans with company stock as a 401(k) plan investment option are presumed to have acted prudently), but concluded that the plaintiffs had put forward a strong enough case so far to rebut the presumption."
(PLANSPONSOR.com)

[Opinion]
SPARK Institute Comment Letter to SEC Re: New 12b-1 Fee Rule (PDF)
15 pages. Excerpt: "[W]e are concerned that the approach taken in the Proposed Rule will impose significant burdens and costs on retirement plan intermediaries who provide important services, will adversely impact plan sponsors and participants, and have unintended consequences that run counter to the SEC's objectives."
(The SPARK Institute)

[Opinion]
Pensions and Politics
Excerpt: "[P]ension reform is front and center for more than a few politicians in waiting. Unfortunately, the situation is far from trivial and transcends global borders. A trip around the world illustrates the potential perils . . . ."
(Investment Governance, Inc)

[Guidance Overview]
SEC's Proposed Rules on Say-on-Pay (PDF)
5 pages. Excerpt: "The new votes on executive compensation will be required in proxy statements for shareholder meetings that take place on or after January 21, 2011, regardless of whether the SEC issues final rules by that time, but the vote on golden parachutes will not be required until after the SEC issues final rules.'
(Buck Consultants)

An Analysis of the Accounting Considerations Unique to Nonqualified Plans (PDF)
6 pages. Excerpt: "This article examines a major plan change and the context that is unique to nonqualified plans. With many companies changing their primary company sponsored retirement vehicle from a defined benefit structure to a defined contribution structure, we discuss the tax, accounting, regulatory and design factors that should be considered and evaluated in order to design and implement necessary changes in a nonqualified plan."
(Aon Hewitt)

Crowdsourcing Employee-Benefits Options
Excerpt: "Soliciting employee opinions is one thing, but offering employees actual decision-making power on employee benefits could give employers and their HR leaders the ability to craft more popular programs and, in turn, boost employee-satisfaction levels."
(Human Resource Executive Online)

Employers not More Generous This Holiday Season
Excerpt: "For eight of the past 10 years, gift certificates for food items have been the leading Thanksgiving gift and 2010 is no exception, the survey found. Seven percent of surveyed employers will be giving employees gift certificates this Thanksgiving, "
(PLANSPONSOR.com)

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